Once again, the ad industry is missing in action from the Queen’s Birthday honours list. But one newspaperman made the grade – former NZ Herald editor Gavin Ellis has made an officer of the NZ Order of Merit for services to journalism.
“I still see the digital environment as the ultimate future of all newspapers but not necessarily on websites or mobile [devices] either,” Ellis told NBR’s Campbell Gibson. “I think we’re yet to see the sort of journalism that newspapers could use in a digital format. We’re in an evolutionary phase and I don’t think we’ve seen the final iteration yet.”
Dr Ellis has had more than 40 years’ experience in the profession, culminating in becoming editor and editor in chief of The New Zealand Herald from 1996 to 2005.
He started his career in 1965 writing for the Auckland Star in the Press Gallery. He stayed at the publication until the early 1970s and dabbled in PR before heading to the Sunday Herald, the Herald’s first attempt at a Sunday newspaper.
During his time at the NZ Herald, it won Newspaper of the Year three times, the Weekend Herald was launched and he oversaw one of the greatest changes in modern news media – the revolution of newspapers launching websites.
“My one regret about the Herald website – and it’s a regret every editor of my era will have – is that we didn’t start charging from day one,” Ellis said.
- Read the full NBR report here
